Confederation of American Natives

The Natives were a gang that held much power in the Five Points of New York City in the mid-19th century. Led by William Cutting, better known as "Bill the Butcher", the gang was named for its beliefs in nativism and its xenophobia, as it was known for its violence against immigrants, especially the Chinese and Irish (who formed the Shanghai Sailors and Dead Rabbits in response).

History
The exodus of people from Ireland during the 1840s due to the Great Famine led to thousands of Irish getting on boats to the United States, with 15,000 Irish coming every week by 1862. Previously, the vast majority of Americans were Protestant, and most of those were of English descent. The English-Irish rivalry back home in the British Isles was carried over to America, with the Protestant English fighting against the Catholic Irish. A self-proclaimed patriot named William Cutting became the leader of the "Natives", a gang of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Americans who wanted to harass the immigrants and leave the whites in charge. For these reasons, the gang would be seen as sympathizers with the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War, and their attacks were focused not just on Irish, but also on free African-Americans and the Chinese immigrants. The gang had its base of power in the Five Points, and they fought against the Irish Dead Rabbits gang, which sought to protect their people from attack by the natives. In February 1846, after years of battle, the Natives had a final battle against the Dead Rabbits, and the Dead Rabbits leader Priest Vallon was killed and much of the gang also slain. The Natives held sway over the Five Points afterwards, and they outlawed the Dead Rabbits.

Cutting was influential in politics during the 1850s and 1860s, having an alliance with Tammany Hall boss William M. Tweed and the police. He became a popular leader of patriots in the city, and he was known for his activism against the new immigrant groups. In 1862 he led the pelting of the cast of Uncle Tom's Cabin with vegetables after the man playing Abraham Lincoln made an abolitionist speech, and he also took over a Chinese theater to have a "night for Americans" on the anniversary of his victory against Vallon. However, Vallon's son Amsterdam Vallon kept his identity secret and rose through the ranks of the Natives, and when his assassination attempt on Cutting failed, he decided to re-create the Dead Rabbits. In July 1863, they agreed to a formal gang fight, coinciding with the New York draft riots. Cutting and most of his gang were killed either by the Dead Rabbits or the US Army, and the Dead Rabbits reclaimed the Five Points.